The invention relates to a knitting machine of the kind defined in the general part of claim 1.
Known knitting machines of this kind (DE-AS No. 1,296,733, DE-OS No. 25 31 762), which are distinguished from flat knitting machines of the prior art which have a reciprocating or circulating carriage particularly in having greater numbers of systems, greater knitting speeds and consequently greater production capacity, are still limited in their applications. In particular, no such knitting machines have become known which are equipped with means for the transfer of loops formed on one needle bed to the needles of the other needle bed, so that ribbed edges and textured patterns cannot be made with these knitting machines.
The transfer of loops has heretofore been known only in conventional knitting machines. Ordinary flat knitting machines have for this purpose, for example, knitting and transfer cams disposed successively in the direction of movement of the carriage or combined knitting and transfer cams (DE-AS No. 24 43 231, DE-OS No. 27 20 750 and DE-OS No. 30 19 036, or PCT-OS WO No. 81/00868). While the selection of the needles to cast off does not involve any problems if special drivers are used, when combination knitting and transfer cams are used, a driver is provided, as a rule, which can be operated only for the transfer action, or a cam switch is disposed between a knitting cam and an additional driver. In that case, those knitting tools which are to transfer the loops are prepared for the transfer action by first being selected by means of a patterning system as in the case of a normal knit or tuck action, and then being driven by the activated driver or cam switch to the transfer position above the knitting level. This results in the advantage that conventional and, in case of necessity, also for tucking, and an additional patterning means can be used for the selection of the knitting needles, and can be programmed for knitting and, in case of necessity, also for tacking, and an additional patterning command is needed only for the operation of the driver or cam switch.
Such transfer means are not directly applicable to knitting machines of the kind specified in the introduction, because in these machines the knitting needle extension and retraction strokes are controlled not by plate cams but by disk cams operatively connected to the knitting tools, and therefore special drivers or cam switches cannot be used. In such knitting machines, therefore, the only patterning devices that have been conceivable heretofore are those in which a fourfold selection is possible ("missknit", "tuck", "knit" and "transfer"), or the selection "tuck"must be dispensed with. A fourfold selector is complex and expensive regardless of the kind of patterning means used, but it is not desirable to dispense with the selection "tuck" precisely where the transfer of loops is involved.
It is therefore the object of the invention to provide a knitting machine of the kind specified above with a loop transfer means, and to design the latter such that the transfer action can be controlled in a manner similar to that of conventional knitting machines.